Compare and contrast...

...Alec Guiness in Bridge on the River Kwai and in Tunes of Glory. He is one of my favorite actors because he was so versatile in his acting. He could play comedy, could be a saint or a bully and pull it off.

I'm sure many have noted that he could have walked right into the role of Colonel Barrow because it was so similar to Colonel Nicholson in BOTRK. I have read that he asked to play Jock Sinclair because it was so different a role and looked like much more fun.

The scene where Major Sinclair bullies the young second lieutenant about how to smoke a cigarette is great.. I'm sure such hazing by senior officers happened a lot in officers' messes of the period. I could not imagine John Mills playing Jock Sinclair. Some actors just don't have the range.

I guess the thing I find hard to believe is that Colonel Barrow could be announced as the new CO of the regiment but nobody in the officers' mess seemed to know that he had been a POW under the Japanese for several years and as a result somewhat "peculiar." This is supposed to have occurred several years after the war and Colonel Barrow would presumably have been back on duty as a serving officer for a while.

Great movie. "For God's sake, smoke that bloody thing like a man!"